something to share with you all...

I think of this blog as my treasure chest of sorts.  I like to post pictures of all the great things I've seen and done, the people I've done them with and my ideas on anything from tornadoes in Brooklyn to soups I've been cooking.  Recently, well since I've moved to New York to be exact, I have discovered this love of cooking.  I could sit and look up recipes for hours, printing them out or copying them down word for word, number for number and rushing home to make something.  While I know I've only shown you the countless cookies I've made and the few soups, cooking is something that I wish I would write more about. 

I stumbled upon this blog the other day while I was searching for a new book to download on my nook.  (I know, this new gift of mine has me rhyming like Dr. Seuss.)  The blog is entitled Orangette and can be found here.  It's all about the author's life in the kitchen; finding recipes, cooking recipes, and her blog was discovered a few years ago and she was asked to publish a book.  Long story short, I found her book on barnes & noble's web site and bought it.  And I seriously can't get enough!  I'm playing catch up on her blog from the past 4 or so years and now I've been completely inspired to just write and continue posting my own pictures, and if they happen to be pictures of food, well then hey, that's fine with me!!

I'm also planning on getting a new camera!  I know, how typical seeing as how I'm the daughter of a photographer AND how exciting since the camera I have now is just your typical point and shoot.  I figure it's time for an upgrade and for a chance to actually be able to capture some great pictures in a better quality!  I'm planning on getting the Nikon P100! Hopefully I can order it tomorrow after I ask the professional (my Dad) about details and hopefully by the next couple of weeks I'll be able to post some new and beautiful pictures! 

This is hopefully what I'll be getting; really, really excited!!

Happy Holidays!

Candles burning low,
Lot's of mistletoe.
Lot's of snow and ice,
Everywhere we go.
Choirs singing carols,
Right outside my door.
All these things and more...
That's what Christmas means to me...

This Christmas was the first time I was coming home not as a student, but as a grown up with a grown up job.  Weird, I know, because I still talk about Santa like he's real, and I'm a huge cookie connoisseur.  But, I did take off a few extra days from work and the big city and came home to spend time with my family!  I had a ton of fun baking cookies, cooking and getting ready for Christmas Eve and even going to the Bruins game up at the Garden on the 23rd!

 
The Bruins ended up beating the Thrashers 4-1, Thornton almost had a hat trick and he managed a fight right at the start of the first period.  It was an exciting game and a ton of fun to be at the Garden!

Christmas Eve was the big day this year; we had the entire family over and the Friday was spent icing cookies, preparing a ham and cooking different appetizers for the evening!  Of course, I was cursing the cookies the whole time while they were actually baking, but after icing them, they began to look more like the animals they should look like.  Martha Stewart is a God if she really got her cookies to look like what the magazine looked like.  I'm convinced she iced cardboard cut-outs of cookies, because there is no way cookies could look that perfect.

I mean, mine came out pretty good- had to get creative before the icing dried!

That night we had the whole family over for food, pomegranate punch and fun!  Here are some pictures of my wonderful family!

 The Guys!

 The cousins!

 The Flaxington Clan

 The Spencer Clan

 Mimi, Poppa and the grandchildren!

The Lovely Ladies

 Bud and Dad having some fun!

Cheers to a successful Christmas Eve!

Christmas Day I spent with my family; we opened presents in the morning and then had an amazing dinner!  The highlight of my day was receiving a nook from my parents!  I'm so excited to just go crazy and read on this thing for the rest of my life.  Books and books and books; sadly I won't be able to create a library like the one in Beauty and the Beast, but maybe if I use my imagination, that's what my Nook library can eventually look like!  Of course it will be electronic, but you can imagine anything.. right?

After Christmas dinner with Mimi & Poppa we had dessert; White Chocolate Mousse that I slaved over!  Just kidding, it was literally 2 ingredients!

You melt white chocolate with 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream and let it cool to room temperature stirring occasionally.  In a chilled bowl whip 1 1/4 cups of heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form.  Fold in the white chocolate mixture.  Chill until ready to serve; garnish with mint and the berries of your choice.  In our case, we used blackberries! Yumm!  It was light, refreshing and decadent!

Christmas night I went over to the Luther's and exchanged gifts with Derek!  And... I am going to see the Lion King in February at PPAC in unbelievable seats!! I am so excited; not only have I wanted to see it since the 5th grade, but who doesn't love Disney?

And then of course we got hit with a blizzard.  So lucky me; my bus was canceled Sunday AND Monday and I got to spend those days playing board games and cards with Derek and purchasing a new pair of snow boots.  And thank god I did because New York City literally looked like "The Day After Tomorrow."  I'm not going to bore you with more pictures of snow because they have been plastered all over the news, but never in all my life have I seen such a mess!  Cars were covered in 6 feet of snow, side streets haven't been plowed, sidewalks are not cleared, and the plows are even taking out cars!  It's really unbelievable.  I heard that for every inch of snow the city gets it costs about $1 Million to remove it, so in that case, $20 million later, it's no wonder it's still a disaster.

But, my friends, the holidays are not over yet, and I will be making a return this weekend for New Year's Eve, the Winter Classic game ( if it doesn't get rained out.. and no I'm not going, I'm watching it at home on TV with lots of food) and Mimi's birthday party!

Merry Christmas!!!  Get ready to ring in 2011!

a weekend at home!

This weekend, I was able to come home and visit with everyone!  I got in Friday night, which was the same night my brother got in from school!  Although it was really late when we got in, I was able to see him and Ben; his ride home!  It's really unbelievable how much the two of them have grown up!  Just crazy to think that they've come a long way from kindergarten, now being freshmen in college.  Where does the time go!!??

On Saturday, I hung out with Derek and we watched Inception; starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  While I know I don't usually write about the movies I watch, if I could tell you one to watch, watch this.  By all means pay attention or you might be completely lost, but if you're a Leo fan, like me, you'll love it!

On Sunday, we had a mini family reunion with my mom's side of the family!  I was able to meet my cousins from Indiana and visit with family who I had not seen in a while!  We all got together at my Mimi's house and had a ton of fun!  Here's some of the pictures from that day!

Dad, Zack and Poppa!

Matt, Aunt Lynn, Mom, Me, Kelsey and Zack- love them all!

Me and Mimi! I love this picture!

Christmas card? and yes, we were all sitting in Poppa's chair on Dad's lap!

"the originals"

our cousins!!

Aunt Terry, Mimi and Poppa!

We really need to get together like this more often!  And Jay- we all know you weren't there!! Now you owe Mimi a trip to Florida and a family reunion! Haha- only kidding... sorta.  It really was great being able to see everyone; Christmas Eve is going to be a blast!  See you all then!

Karyl & Katie take NYC

This past weekend, my mom came to visit me in the big city!  In my opinion, this is the best time of year to visit, even with the cold, the city comes to life with the arrival of Christmas.  She got in on Thursday night, so we had a full weekend to spend traveling all over the city!  Thursday night we relaxed and went out to eat at a little italian restaurant around the corner from my house; Bar Toto.  It was delicious!  We had to get to bed early because the next morning we were on our way to Radio City Musical Hall to see the Rockette's perform their annual Christmas Spectacular!!

Radio City Music Hall; home of the Rockettes!!

Mom and I before it started!!

the kick-line!  They were amazing!

toy soldiers- easily the coolest part of the whole thing!!

the rockettes!

After we saw the spectacular, which really put us in the mood for Christmas we went off to Rockefeller center to see the tree!!!  I love the tree; I love bringing people who have never seen it and walking down the street, asking them if they're ready and turning the corner.  Picture it; walking down 49th St., only seeing random shops and cafes, no idea where you're going, and then BAM, you turn the corner and see this: 

The tree!!

We even took our pictures with it; and believe it or not, we made it back that night to see it all lit up!  It makes a world of difference when it's lit!

After checking out Rockefeller Center we decided to take a stroll down 5th Ave or Fashion Ave, and loop around through Midtown!!  5th Ave is known for it's amazing Christmas decorations and their window displays!! It's fun to just window shop because of course these stores are for the rich and famous!

 The NBA Store and Tommy Hilfiger

Tiffany's!

Fendi!

The Plaza Hotel

Even the NHL store was ready for Christmas!

After 5th Ave we took a short stroll through Central Park and then headed South towards Bryant Park and the NY Public Library!!

views from central park

Bryant Park; the rink, the tree and the library behind it!  Bryant Park had tons of outdoor shops all encased in glass!  It was a really cool way to shop, especially since they kept it mostly outside!

The New York Public library!! I fell in love with this place and even got a library card!

For all you Sex & the City fans; this is the library where Carrie attempted to get married!  It's even more beautiful in person!! Loved it here!

After we hung out at the library and Bryant Park we trekked down to Herald Square to visit Santa at Macy's!! The picture windows were all decorated for Christmas and even the 9th floor of Macy's looked like we had reached the North Pole!

Macy's!

the entrance at Macy's!

Believe Bears!

we even made it all the way to the North Pole to see Santa!!!

After Macy's we headed uptown to check out Times Square at night and headed back to Rockefeller Center to see the tree!!  The lights look even better at night!!

Times Square

All lit up at night!

The tree all lit up at night; beautiful!!!

Believe it or not, we were absolutely exhausted after that day!  We walked a lot!! After dinner in Times Square we headed back to my apartment and watched Christmas movies and drank wine!  The next morning, we were headed a little farther downtown!

On Saturday, we started off the day in Union Square to check out the farmer's market and holiday craft show!  It's amazing what they can do with a small park! 

Pretty flowers in Union Square

Christmas tree sale in Union Square

After Union Square we went to check out the Flatiron District and Eataly!  Eataly is a huge indoor market that contains Italian food.  From pasta, to espresso, to gelato to wine, it has everything!!

Desserts!

Directions to all the different parts of Eataly!

pasta lovers paradise!

After Eataly we strolled back downtown towards Soho!  On the way, we discovered a market called Limelight Market.  It was really awesome because it was a marketplace inside an old church!  It was decorated for Christmas and had small boutiques and food shops!  You never know what you'll find in NYC!

We then made our way to Soho and Little Italy to eat lunch!!  

Little Italy!

Peroni with lunch!

Antipasto Misto at Il Piccolo Buffalo!

After lunch we made our way back to Brooklyn to get ready for our big night out on the town!!  My mom surprised me with Broadway tickets to see the Million Dollar Quartet!!! It was amazing; featured Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and my two favorites... Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash!!  It was based on the gathering of the 4 of them in Sun Records when they all got together and had a big jam session!  It was seriously the best thing I have ever been to.  We left dancing!  Mimi all I can say is that you would have loved it!!!!

me and my two favorites!!

mom and the guys!! 

We had so much fun all weekend!! From the tree to 5th ave to Little Italy to Broadway, I don't think we really missed anything!  We fit it all in!!! Now I'm exhausted and can't wait to take a nap!!  If you ever get the chance to visit NYC near Christmastime, I would highly suggest it; and if you can, do it with someone you love :)